South Korea's rival parties offered opposing assessments of the economy on the day of the Chuseok holiday. The Democratic Party said the cost of preparing holiday ancestral rite tables had fallen, while the People Power Party countered that high prices had deepened hardship for low- and middle-income households.
Shin Hyun-young, spokesperson for the Democratic Party, said in a statement on the 25th that "the burden of preparing holiday tables this Chuseok fell 2.3% from last year."
Shin noted that the government had spent 193 billion won ($138 million) on discounts for agricultural, livestock and fisheries products ahead of the holiday and expanded supplies of seasonal goods to 1.6 times normal levels. "We worked to expand the scale of support so that it becomes a livelihood measure the public can feel, and to lower holiday price pressures on both the supply and discount sides," she said.
She also pointed to consumer support programs for traditional markets, including Onnuri gift certificates and cash-back events. "We will make sure the results can be felt in people's daily lives," Shin said. "We will look at the shortcomings more responsibly and address them."
The People Power Party, by contrast, argued that high prices and the economic slowdown have left ordinary households still struggling.
Park Chung-kwon, chief spokesperson for the People Power Party, said in a statement that high prices and the economic downturn had pushed household finances to the edge of a cliff, criticizing the government and the ruling party. "Hangawi, the nation's biggest holiday, has arrived, but the hearts of people sitting before their ancestral rite tables are heavier than ever," Park said. "The sighs from neighborhood shops are growing deeper by the day."
"In the face of the suffering of people who struggle even to fill a single shopping basket, the Lee Jae-myung administration and the ruling party, which are responsible for running the country, have been consistent only in their arrogance and self-righteousness," he said, adding that they were "driving people's lives further into a dead end."
Park said the People Power Party would check what he called the administration's unilateralism and set state affairs right. "The People Power Party will rebuild the fairness and common sense that have collapsed," he said. "We will become the public's most reliable support with practical policies to overcome the livelihood crisis at hand."
